GVSU Downtown Development

[crinzema]

Well thank you for the unintentional compliment. All I need is credit for the design if it changes to this. Having my name on the building would suffice.

[GRDadof3]

22 hours ago, GRLaker said:

From your computer to GVSU's eyes.

I thought that was GVSU's new design too. I was like WOW!

[ironyisadeadscene]

On 12/25/2017 at 11:53 PM, crinzema said:

One bag of Cheetos + 15 minutes = wa la...

A whole bag in 15 minutes?  I think I'm more impressed with that over the rendering.  And I like the rendering. 

[thebeerqueer]

With a bag of Cheetos and 15 minutes crinzema wins the 2017 Grand Rapids Architecture Design  Award. 

[MJLO]

50 minutes ago, thebeerqueer said:

With a bag of Cheetos and 15 minutes crinzema wins the 2017 Grand Rapids Architecture Design  Award. 

Are you suggesting we should send variety packs of Frito-Lay product to various local design firms, to see if it assists in adding aesthetics and common sense to potential upcoming projects?

[thebeerqueer]

4 hours ago, MJLO said:

Are you suggesting we should send variety packs of Frito-Lay product to various local design firms, to see if it assists in adding aesthetics and common sense to potential upcoming projects?

It certainly couldn't hurt. 

[joeDowntown]

16 hours ago, crinzema said:

Well thank you for the unintentional compliment. All I need is credit for the design if it changes to this. Having my name on the building would suffice.

Haha. I've been out of the loop. I thought they actually changed the addition to white.

Joe

[joeDowntown]

Has anyone seen the signage on the new Finkelstein building?!

First, I LOVE signage. I'd love to see the city relax their signage ordinance to allow for old school neon marquee signs, and would love to see the city allow an intersection that is similar to Time Square (or any intersection in Tokyo). 

With that being said, GVSU has outdone itself with a monstrous sign that is completely out of scale. Almost like they were saying "how big can we make this sign, without the building falling down under it's weight". At least to me, it's almost cartoonish.

Joe

[HavingAhoot]

18 minutes ago, joeDowntown said:

Has anyone seen the signage on the new Finkelstein building?!

First, I LOVE signage. I'd love to see the city relax their signage ordinance to allow for old school neon marquee signs, and would love to see the city allow an intersection that is similar to Time Square (or any intersection in Tokyo). 

With that being said, GVSU has outdone itself with a monstrous sign that is completely out of scale. Almost like they were saying "how big can we make this sign, without the building falling down under it's weight". At least to me, it's almost cartoonish.

Joe

I thought the exact same thing driving home last night as it was getting put up! The GV sign looked good and I liked the placement of the Finkelstein sign just WOW it's big!

Reminded me of... \/

Edited February 9, 2018 by HavingAhoot

[Guest]

OK this might be slightly off topic but....  Does anyone else find it slightly annoying that all of the students try to cross Fulton near Eberhard/under 131 instead of using the crosswalk?  It's like a real life frogger sometimes, especially when class is about to start or gets out.  I feel like it became more of a problem when they moved on of the Route 50 stops further East down Front.  I get it, it's a straight line to the Business building, but I have seen people almost get hit not paying attention.  Pedestrians are already bad enough completely ignoring crosswalk signals downtown.  I guess the only solution would be to put an actual crosswalk there or put up pedestrian barriers to corral everyone further west to the existing crosswalk.

 

[VectorPrime]

3 hours ago, Floyd_Z said:

OK this might be slightly off topic but....  Does anyone else find it slightly annoying that all of the students try to cross Fulton near Eberhard/under 131 instead of using the crosswalk?  It's like a real life frogger sometimes, especially when class is about to start or gets out.  I feel like it became more of a problem when they moved on of the Route 50 stops further East down Front.  I get it, it's a straight line to the Business building, but I have seen people almost get hit not paying attention.  Pedestrians are already bad enough completely ignoring crosswalk signals downtown.  I guess the only solution would be to put an actual crosswalk there or put up pedestrian barriers to corral everyone further west to the existing crosswalk.

 

That's one of the things that will be addressed with the construction of the Pew Campus Laker Line station this summer. (I know there's a rendering floating around somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so hopefully, this will do the trick.) The actual stations will be built under the underpass (in red) while a signalized crosswalk will be installed on the east side (the white line), and the median lane will be converted into a barrier of sorts (the orange line) to prevent any pedestrian crossing other than at the two crosswalks.

Edited March 20, 2019 by VectorPrime

[GRDadof3]

8 hours ago, VectorPrime said:

That's one of the things that will be addressed with the construction of the Pew Campus Laker Line station this summer. (I know there's a rendering floating around somewhere, but I can't seem to find it, so hopefully, this will do the trick.) The actual stations will be built under the underpass (in red) while a signalized crosswalk will be installed on the east side (the white line), and the median lane will be converted into a barrier of sorts (the orange line) to prevent any pedestrian crossing other than at the two crosswalks.

There were a couple of different variations. This was one.

[demhem]

Those pedestrians and their incessant walking! VectorPrime is correct, there will be a mid-block crossing (FINALLY) as part of the Laker Line platform construction. I'd love to carry a median across the entire bridge so that it would slow traffic (currently, it seems like people speed up to 40/50 mph across it at times) which is obviously extremely dangerous in a downtown area and adjacent to a campus with pedestrians and bicyclists. Traffic calming or a road diet along that entire stretch would make the whole area more walkable. 

[GR_Urbanist]

The issue that I've heard from some GV staff is that the students getting off the bus dont want to walk down to Mt. Vernon to use that long crosswalk, that is why they cross in the middle.

 

Honestly I wish they had enough space in the middle (turning lane?), under the overpass, to make some sort of enclosed platform where they can have a crosswalk with a traffic light, located at the shortest distance between the bus and the sidewalks on both sides of the street. The expected design still expects students to walk down to the intersection, which isnt going to happen as it isnt happening now.

 

But who knows? Maybe even this idea is less safe overall.

[ctpgr34]

On 2/9/2018 at 9:10 AM, HavingAhoot said:

I thought the exact same thing driving home last night as it was getting put up! The GV sign looked good and I liked the placement of the Finkelstein sign just WOW it's big!

Reminded me of... \/

I thought there was something regarding the GRCC sign somewhere, but this is the closest I could find-  I found it today on the GRCC Facebook page

[MJLO]

It's a carbon copy of the one on the GVSU building?  That seems to have the potential to confuse the heck out of people(especially out of towners) with both colleges having the same building name, and same signage. 

[WMrapids]

6 hours ago, MJLO said:

It's a carbon copy of the one on the GVSU building?  That seems to have the potential to confuse the heck out of people(especially out of towners) with both colleges having the same building name, and same signage. 

Heck, that picture even threw me off for a second. Maybe we could use at least a little bit of creativity?

[GR8scott]

Seems like it would have been much better to reverse the signs with the larger much more visible on being GRCC on top and the building name smaller and on the building   

[GRDadof3]

Someone at GVSU told me that there could be a "new building" soon at the old Ferris Coffee building/site on Winter, to house the computer science program. 

That's all I was told. No word on where/how/etc.

[joeDowntown]

2 hours ago, GRDadof3 said:

Someone at GVSU told me that there could be a "new building" soon at the old Ferris Coffee building/site on Winter, to house the computer science program. 

That's all I was told. No word on where/how/etc.

Interesting. Seems like they just put a lot of work into that building. Looking at their master plan, I’d expect the next building to be across the street from the Ferris build, next to Burger King. 

It’d be exciting to see an addition building on the Pew Campus. Seems like Allendale and the medical mile have received the lions share of new construction at GVSU the last 5 years. 

Joe

[GRLaker]

This is the plan for that site. 

https://www.gvsu.edu/giving/innovation-design-center-for-engineering-483.htm

 

[GRDadof3]

7 hours ago, GRLaker said:

This is the plan for that site. 

https://www.gvsu.edu/giving/innovation-design-center-for-engineering-483.htm

 

He definitely said "new building" and he works in admissions. 

[Kinkema]

1 hour ago, GRDadof3 said:

He definitely said "new building" and he works in admissions. 

They've definitely been raising money for a new computer science building, although, I assumed it would be in allendale. It would be much nicer to have it downtown near the engineering campus, though.

[GRDadof3]

22 minutes ago, Kinkema said:

They've definitely been raising money for a new computer science building, although, I assumed it would be in allendale. It would be much nicer to have it downtown near the engineering campus, though.

That's the program my daughter is going into as a transfer and he said by the time she gets to be an upperclassman she'll be taking classes downtown. And they're in Allendale now. 

[demhem]

On 7/3/2019 at 10:29 PM, GRDadof3 said:

Someone at GVSU told me that there could be a "new building" soon at the old Ferris Coffee building/site on Winter, to house the computer science program. 

That's all I was told. No word on where/how/etc.

According to the GVSU 2020 Capital Outlay that was submitted to the state for funding, the "Computer Information Systems Classroom Building" is being proposed for the Allendale campus: https://www.gvsu.edu/cms4/asset/83D77566-0FCE-1482-0E85CB93ACE30B91/capital_outlay_project_request_2020.pdf

I would assume this would house their computer information systems and computer science programs, but I could be wrong.